This invention is directed to a video surveillance system, and in particular, by way of example and not limitation, to a video surveillance system adapted to be mounted in a law enforcement vehicle for producing a permanent digital evidentiary record, on a multi-media disc, of a traffic stop or other event and incidents occurring after a suspect's vehicle has been stopped.
In law enforcement, a reliable witness that is incapable of perjury is needed to substantiate actions taken by a law enforcement officer and to protect the officer against false allegations by persons involved in an incident. An excellent witness of this type is a video recording of the incident, now widely used in traffic stops and criminal investigations, which can be reviewed after the incident and archived. By recording the incident first-hand as it actually happens, video recordings serve to eliminate conflicting individual interpretations of the incident and facilitate effective and efficient law enforcement.
Vehicle-mounted video cameras to make video records of an incident or scene external to the law enforcement vehicle are well known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,949,186 to Peterson discloses a vehicle-mounted system in which a video-cassette recorder is housed in a vault located in the trunk of a patrol car. U.S. Pat. No. 5,677,979 to Squicciarini at al discloses a video surveillance system which integrates the outputs of a video camera, a radar unit, a remote control, and a wireless microphone to produce a comprehensive video recording of an incident from its beginning to the end. This system also uses a video cassette recorder to capture the incident on videotape. However, VHS and digital video tapes are bulky, requiring considerable space for storage, are susceptible to damage, and degrade over time. Additionally, the data on tapes may only be accessed sequentially.